♪ mark: welcome to this edition of "best of with all due respect." it was a week that tested the metal of those behind the electoral results. beyond the latest electoral results, each candidate had to respond to the deadly attacks in brussels, and explain how they would protect the u.s. against the islamic state and was on around the world. john: several of them made their case. we sat down with donald trump on tuesday. them economy ted cruz of texas as he campaigned in europe. back we begin the look

with donald trump, telling mark and i have he first got word of belgium. donald trump: i was called by a friend he said a terrible thing happened in brussels. i'm not surprised. i have been saying brussels is a mess with what is going on. i turn on the television, and i saw what was going on. i think it is deplorable. mark: and one of your interviews this morning, you talked about giving the country a peptalk. as one of the things he would do. you can do talk about these issues in negative ways. you say be terrorists are winning, some people are in the country. donald trump: they are. they are shutting down the world, and we do not do anything about it. we are worried about laws. we can't waterboarded, and yet they are chopping off heads and putting people in cages. mark: i understand that is part of your view but a pep talk , involves optimism. will you say optimistically about winning the war? donald trump: i would be tough on terror. i would be much tougher than we are now. i would increase our laws so we

could do certain things. we're not playing on the same field. they have no laws. they have absolutely no laws. they kill people and do not talk about it. they do not worry about the law. we do something that is a little harsh, and the particular soldier were general or whoever may be, loses his pension and life. we're not playing by the same rules. they are playing dirty stuff, we're not playing that way. we cannot waterboard. we cannot do anything. waterboarding nothing is nice , about it. you know what? we have to go much tougher. it is eating up the world now. a lot of the world is weak. and they are weak and ineffective people. what is happening in germany is unbelievable. what is happening in a small part even of sweden is unbelievable. a lot of people are saying, donald trump was right. and you know that and i know , that. i don't want to be right about it. i would rather be wrong about it. but i am right about it. john: senator cruz came out

today saying we should have police patrols in muslim neighborhoods in the united states. you said you thought that was a good idea. in an earlier interview you said you are 100% behind it. we had ryan crocker on the show , and he says it is the worst idea you can imagine. it would be exactly what isis would want us to do. because it would portray the united states as being against -- indiscriminately prejudice against muslims. how do you respond? donald trump: i am ok. we have to be vigilant, we have to be careful. in new york city we have a shrug its, which is amazing people. we have the strongest, if you talk about vigilance, we were watching closer than anybody else. and it was an amazing group. they actually caught people in terms of stopping attacks. it was ended by a mayor that is grossly incompetent. we have an incompetent mayor of new york city, as you probably have heard. they ended it. for no reason. we should bring it back. we have to be vigilant. we have to look, even at the mosques. i am ok with it.

there is a problem. john: i don't think you are responding to the substance of the argument. are you saying that is wrong? isis would take it as a victory? donald trump: i think he is wrong. we are to be much tougher, much smarter, and much more vigilant. john: your career, which has successful,ly very what is the analogy, what is the kind of decision you would have to make in your career previously that was the closest thing to the kind of decision a president has to make when he decides to send american forces into a conflict? donald trump: nobody has made decisions like that. you're talking about lives, potentially thousands of lives. when you do not make decisions, sometimes you talk about more lives. if we are going to be weak and ineffective like we are now, i watched president obama, land in cuba with nobody to greet him. in particular, castro, but nobody to greet him. i thought that was terrible.

i watched him in a press conference yesterday. it looked like he was a baby castro was the boss. , i watched him today at a baseball game in cuba while people are -- body parts are laying all over a place with threats to us and anybody else. and i am watching him sitting in the sun watching a baseball game. i think it looks so bad. he could have said, this is an emergency, he should be back in washington, in the white house, where a president should be at a time like this. it looks so bad. mark: what is the toughest decision you have made in your career? donald trump: i have made many tough decisions. mark: what is one? donald trump: i do multimillion dollar deals. guaranteeing vast amounts of debt to do very large transactions, which takes courage. if they don't work out i make , them work out. i take deals that should have worked out and i make deals.

i will be building a massive , it is horrible, and the market is great. and then the market turns bad. i am tough on banks. i make them turn out. i do that very often. because very often things do not work out the way you think they will work out. that is the sign of a great business person. it is the sign of a great deal maker. because things change, it is, how do you do any bad times? it is not how you do in the good times. it is how you do in the bad times. mark: you talk about the border isis. , these are relatively short-term issues. if you were president for years, eight years, going back to the optimistic, you talked about war with the west, what is the donald trump land, long-term to try to make the relationship between a muslim world and western world better? donald trump: first of all, the need to respect us. they do not respect us at all. they do not respect a lot of things happening to not only our country, but they do not respect others. i think what merkel has done to germany is an outrage.

i think the german people, i know german people that are here all the time. people that love, love, germany. and people tell me two years ago , they were saying, it is the greatest country on earth. now they are going to leave. they are going to leave germany. mark: how would you make the muslim world like the west better? donald trump: the first thing you have to do is get them to respect the west and respect us. if you're not going to respect us, it will never work. this has been going on for a long time. you know i tell the story about pershing in 1918 were there were problems were they had radical islamic terrorism. in the philippines, and is a well-known story and i will not go to the process. they had a huge problem with the terrorism having to do with islam, or having to do with radical islam. he was unbelievably harsh. i think you know the story. he was unbelievably harsh. they didn't have a problem for 28 years.

be, have element would people in the islamic world respect the people in the west. donald trump: i don't think we will be successful until they have respect. they have no respect for the president or the country. mark: let's talk about nato. you talked about nato with the washington post. suggested that maybe the u.s. should have a different role, a smaller role. and nato might need a different type of mission. there are people that say that america needs to be the leader of nato, that is an important role. do you agree? donald trump: we have had a disproportionate share. we are paying for a lot of nato. it is helping them more than us. i look at the ukraine, we are always the leader. what about the countries surrounding it? they do not say anything. we are always the ones that want to go to war with russia over the ukraine. we are the ones always fighting putting up a lot of money for , nato disproportionately. now we put up a lot of the money for a lot of countries. south korea, we defend

saudi arabia, we defended japan we defend germany. , we put up a lot of money and people wonder, why do we owe $19 trillion? it is because we are defending everyone else. everyone sees it as many times higher. is that really for us? it is because we are defending everyone else. we are defending the whole world. mark: should america be the leader of nato? donald trump: nato should be obsolete. it was set up when things were different. things are different now. we were rich then, we had nothing but money. we had nothing but power. far more than we have today. in a true sense. i think nato, you have to really examine nato. it does not really help us it is , helping other countries. i don't think those other countries appreciate what we are doing. john: just to be clear -- you made two slightly different arguments, i want to clarify. one was that you want to see the u.s. pay less into nato. donald trump: definitely. john: but it is possible that

nato is obsolete. donald trump: i would certainly look at it. i would want help from others. one thing definitely, we are paying too much. as to whether or not it is obsolete, i will determine that . mark: up next, more with our interview with donald trump including thoughts about using nuclear weapons against the islamic state. ♪

♪ donald trump: i think i would be very late compared to my opponents that are running. people do not realize, i know a lot of people like to say, he actually was for the iraq war. i was against the iraq war. many months before it started, i was like, i don't know. this is the first time. in all fairness, i have been a great businessman over the years. i was asked to the businessman, it did not sound good to me. by the time that started, plenty of proof on it, there are plenty

of articles from very early on. hillary clinton wanted to do it. hillary clinton would be such a bad president. she does not have the strength, or the stamina to be president to be a good president. people wanted to go to iraq -- i didn't. i probably would be the last to use it. but i have to say this, there are -- john: you would probably be the last to use nuclear weapons against isis? but you would rule in the possibility of using nuclear weapons against isis. donald trump: i am never going to rule anything out. even if i felt it, i would not want to tell you that. because at a minimum i want them , to think maybe we would use it. it is the worst thing when we do these interviews, with everybody, not me, and you ask a question like that, everybody comes clean and they are so honest. we need unpredictably. we have enemies. isis is an enemy. it is an enemy not wearing uniform. we do not know who they are. in the old days we had japan, germany, they would be dressed,

we would be dressed we knew who , we were fighting. it was called a war. now we don't know who they are. we need unpredictedability. when you ask a question like that, it is a sad thing to have to answer. the enemy is watching. i have a very good chance of winning. i have frankly i do not want the , enemy to know how i think. with that being said, i do not rule out anything. john: rather than looking forward and maintaining unpredictability have there been , circumstances, provocations in the past, let's say, 15 years when you if you had been , president, you would have considered nuclear weapons. for instance, after 9/11? donald trump: no. first of all, we attacked the wrong country. we went after iraq. john: that is why i asked about the talib and. donald trump: iraq did not knock down the world trade center. i am saying, iraq didn't -- we could have taken out the taliban if we wanted to. we did not need nuclear weapons. i would say definitely, nuclear

weapons are a last resort. i understand the power of nuclear weapons. i had an uncle for many years at m.i.t. a brilliant man. he used to tell me 30 years ago about the power of weaponry. the power of nuclear, and other things. it is so devastating. i would say, absolutely, as a last resort. john: you are talking more -- donald trump: that does not mean we should not be prepared. that does not meet our equipment should be prepared. i'm not even sure it is prepared. i watched 60 minutes a year ago, where they should have never put this on. the administration should have never allowed it. but they showed these nuclear weapons that are not in a state of preparedness. and i will tell you i would , never want to use them. but we have to be prepared. they have to be perfect. mark: you are and talking more about national security than you ever have, obviously. donald trump: its true. mark: are there other areas where you think you need to know more to be president about

national security? donald trump: i have a good instinct for national security. mark: i'm not asking about your instinct. there is no area for you think you need to learn more about it? donald trump: i want to know more about anything in every area. and everyle area little corner. i do think i have a good instinct. if you go back four years ago, we should not have been in iraq. but i said, now you are leaving, you have destabilized the middle east. it is a total mess. iran will take the oil. iraq has the second-largest oil reserves in the world. really good oil. i said, take the oil. so now who has the oil? and iran willoil, have it. john: it is been taken for for a long time that the united states and the president of united states are the leaders of the free world. if you are the president of the united states would you think of , yourself as the leader of the free world? donald trump: i would. that does not mean i will spend trillions of dollars on nation building.

i think the days of nationbuilding have proven to be over. mark: do you think america is the most powerful country on earth? donald trump: i think that anges, andd ch all of a sudden the power of weaponry is so incredible. if we were not talking about the power of weapons, i would have said, if you are in, you made a mistake, get out immediately. you cannot allow anybody to arm with the kind of weapons and the kind of power that can be produced. that is the problem. john: you talked earlier about the notion that we are losing to isil. they are making us look soft. donald trump: isis. the president always says isil. it is almost like he does it to bother people. john: i'm not doing it to bother you. donald trump: no, i know. the president always says isil, and i actually think he does it to bother people. john: they're talking about economics, military, everything. is america right now the most powerful country? donald trump: i would say that people are catching up.

i think china is catching up. i think russia is catching up. you look at our budgets, we cut cut way back on the military. we have a military that needs help. we have a military with old equipment. i have a friend whose son has spent a bit of time in iraq and afghanistan, and he said we get our weapons are not as good as the enemies. we give them to people, and we think they are fighting for us. he is so disheartened when he sees that they have better weapons than we do and they are american weapons. john: national security is going to be a big issue. you and hillary clinton are way ahead in delegates. let's say it is the general election between you. she was the secretary of state. donald trump: look at the job she did. look at syria, but the judge. mark: you are a businessman and hosted a tv show. how do you win that argument? donald trump: i think people will see how competent i am. i think i am smarter than she

is, i am much more competent than she is. i think she has been very weak. i have said it before. i don't think she has the strength or the stamina to be a good president. and the call at 3:00 in the morning, i think she is sleeping, i don't think she wakes up. that has been proven. when you look at hillary with that phony ad that she did, the 3:00 in the morning added, she never woke up. the phone call was made. the ambassador, benghazi -- the call was made hundreds of times. they were calling and calling. blumenthal's call, but not the people -- she was sleeping. john: you think there was anything she did as secretary of state you think is good? donald trump: not that i can think of. yeah, one thing. she did one thing, a lot of traveling. i think she worked hard. she was always on planes. going back and forth. but she also lied. she said she was attacked. she came under attack. she was landing someplace come and she was under a vicious attack. it turned out to be a total

fraud. john: that was donald trump. coming up next, we hear from his most electorally formidable opponent. ted cruz on wife he thinks he could stop donald, next. ♪

♪ mark: senator, thank you for joining us. john: you are not the candidate of mitt romney and jeb bush. ted cruz: we are seeing republicans coming together. we are seeing republicans unite. in the last 10 days, we have been endorsed by jeb bush, mitt romney, but also by mike lee and mark levin. that is about as broader spectrum in the republican party as you can imagine. the entire ideological spectrum. i think the reason is simple. for some time, 65% to 70% of republicans have recognized the donald trump is not the best nominee to go head-to-head against hillary clinton. donald loses to hillary, and i beat hillary. what we are seeing every day as

republicans coming together and , uniting behind the campaign. that is what it is going to take to be to donald for the nomination and hillary in november. some of the people are less interested in supporting you then stopping donald trump. ted cruz: i welcome support from anyone. the object is to win and turn the country around. if we keep going, we have had seven years under obama. seven years of economic stagnation. misery. seven years of the federal government assaulting the constitution and the bill of rights. as brussels yesterday tragically illustrated, seven years of weakness and appeasement from the obama, clinton foreign-policy that has enabled the rise of radical islamic terrorist. mark: politics is not static if , you look at a snapshot of where we are now, it is not clear based on polling that you are a stronger candidate than donald trump: ted cruz: it is clear. the polling consistently shows that hillary beats donald. the polling shows that i beat

hillary. i will give you an example. last week there was a general election poll in utah. it showed hillary beating donald trump in utah, bright red, conservative, conservative utah. listen, if the republican nominee cannot carry utah, you're looking at a walter mondale style landslide defeat. that is one of the reasons why so many republicans across the ideological spectrum are uniting behind our campaign. mark: politics is rough, it has been a tough nomination. not the toughest either of us have seen. your wives are involved. i was really surprised at how quickly that escalated. it started with an outside group. you are not connected to it, he is not. he reacted, and then you reacted. is this more personal or just still politics? ted cruz: last night we saw how low donald is willing to stoop. he attacks my wife directly.

it is a pattern we have seen, mark. whenever donald feels scared, whenever he is afraid of what is happening whenever bad news , breaks for him, his reaction is to yell and scream, and often curse and try to bully people and threaten people. and so last night, was a very bad night for donald trump. he went and campaigned hard in utah. we were hoping in utah to break 50%, which gives us all the delegates. not only did we break 50%, we had a landslide victory. we had nearly 70% of the vote in utah. and donald is scared and unhappy. his reaction was to attack my wife directly. and listen, my wife, she is the daughter of christian missionaries. she lived in africa as a little girl. she is my best friend. if donald wants a character fight, he has to stay with me. heidi is out of his league. mark: do you expect him to keep it up? ted cruz: i don't know. he is used to being a bully.

to just attacking people and scaring people. heidi is not remotely scared of donald trump. she has dealt with bullies in the business world her whole life. and someone yelling and screaming and insulting her is not remotely frightening. mark: let's talk about nato. he is taken on an unusual position for someone in either party to say the u.s. , contributes too much. maybe he would look at the fundamental purpose of nato, and maybe there isn't one. what with the role of nato be in a ted cruz administration? ted cruz: you are right. donald trump's foreign policy is bizarre. and is he got very little , understanding of foreign-policy. what he does know is wrong. what he has been advocating as weakness, as with rural, -- as withdrawal from the world, isolationism. with respect to israel, for

example, he says he will be neutral between israel and the palestinians. and with respect to nato, two days ago he advocated withdrawing from nato. now that is a terrible idea. it was striking that the day after he called for that, we saw it tragic terrorist attack in brussels, where nato is headquartered. we should not be withdrawing from europe. we should not be abandoning our allies. we should be strengthening our alliance with europe. we should strengthen our alliance with israel. donald trump had his way, if america did withdraw from nato, it would hand a massive victory to putin. a massive victory to isis. the idea that donald trump would want the presidency to begin with a preemptive surrender, turning tail and running that is , a sign of weakness. and it is striking that donald's foreign policy is to the left of barack obama and hillary clinton. they are not arguing to withdraw from nato. yet donald seems unable to distinguish our friends from enemies.

that is a very dangerous approach. mark: he said his speech may have repositioned him on neutrality. on nato. ted cruz: he said many times that he would be neutral between israel and palestinians. the fact he read a speech someone wrote for him off by teleprompter the pretended to stand with israel is reflecting -- anyone who cannot distance between israel, between the idf forces that protect innocent civilians, and islamic terrorists that seek to murder us, that raises real questions about their fitness and judgment to be commander in chief. we need a president who is understanding of radical islam and is prepared to do whatever is necessary to defeat islamic terrorists. and donald lack of knowledge and lack of understanding of radical islamic terrorism is every bit